Yesterday CNN reported that the federal authorities are investigating a series of alleged anti-gay "incidents involving
harassment and bullying" in Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District. Today two
civil rights advocacy organizations announced that they are suing
the district on behalf of five students "who have
faced severe anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in school."

Since 2009, seven district students have committed suicide. Their parents and
friends reportedly "say four of those students were either gay, perceived to be
gay or questioning their sexuality, and they say that at least two of them were
bullied over their sexuality."

In
a May letter to the
district's superintendent, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and National
Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) said their clients had asked them "to investigate the
pervasive harassment they have experienced based on their actual or perceived
sexual orientation or gender expression at District schools." The
same letter
demanded "prompt and meaningful action to remedy the current hostile
environment and to compensate our clients for the harm caused by the District."

The plaintiffs, their
demands ignored,
have since decided
to sue. Their complaint cites not
only extensive
verbal harassment, but
also other, more serious forms of harassment, such as: "being urinated on,
being stabbed in the neck with a pencil, being choked, being pushed into walls,
being shoved forcefully into lockers, having objects thrown at them in class,
and having books knocked out of their hands,— acts often accompanied by
anti-gay and gender-related slurs." The complaint also
says:
"These acts occurred on school grounds and some occurred in plain view of
school officials. Plaintiffs and their parents also regularly reported the
harassment to school staff and administrators"

A
memo obtained by CNN says that both the Justice Department and the Department of
Education's Office of Civil Rights are reviewing "allegations of harassment and
discrimination in the Anoka-Hennepin School District based on sex, including
peer-on-peer harassment based on not conforming to gender stereotypes."

In a statement
to Media Matters, Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay,
Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), praised the lawsuit
but pointed out that "when these cases end up in court, it is usually a sign
that much has already been lost, and that something has gone seriously wrong"
and said that such lawsuits are unfortunately "necessary to force school
districts to follow the law and provide equal opportunity to all students."
Byard also said that Anoka-Hennepin had refused the anti-bullying materials and training that
GLSEN provides to school districts across the country.

According to SPLC
and NCLR, official district policy is at least
partly responsible for "pervasive anti-gay harassment in the district's schools. As
evidence, they point
to the district's 2009 implementation of a
controversial policy requiring that school staff "remain neutral on matters
regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led
discussions."

Sam
Wolfe, the SPLC's lead attorney in the case, says that this "gag policy" causes "serious
harm" because it "singles
out a vulnerable and disfavored minority - LGBT students - and prevents
teachers and other district employees from supporting, or even protecting,
those students within the classroom."

According to CNN, "Anoka-Hennepin is the only Minnesota school
district known to have such a policy. However, at least eight other states --
Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and
Utah -- have statutes specifying varying limits on classroom instruction
regarding homosexuality. Tennessee considered similar legislation this year."

Earlier this year SPLC sued Anoka-Hennepin
on behalf of two lesbian high school students who were selected as "royalty"
for their high school's winter events but prevented from walking in the
procession together as a same-sex couple. The case was settled in favor of the students within 24 hours.